VMF gratitude - Dave Du Toit (Co- Director / Founder)

Well it has certainly been a time of highs and lows, of course my birthday being one of the highs and a time to look back over all those years and what has been achieved, the people I have met and the friends that have been made. As September 21st is World Gratitude Day, I just want to say thank you to all of you for contributing your time, your skills making donations when we call upon you, signing petitions and supporting campaigns. You have not only enriched the lives of many animals but made it possible for the VMF to help many more. My Birthday surprise could not have been more rewarding and unexpected. It made me feel so great that so many of you stepped in again to help not only with donations but words of support for what is being done, Thank you to all of you.

We had a new addition to the VMF family called Baz the rescued sheep who was fortunate to be spotted by Josie in the middle of the night on the main road from Tzaneen only a few days old with no flock in sight running around frantically with his umbilical chord still attached. We can only assume he fell off a truck, he was nursed back to health and as there are no farm animal sanctuaries here, he is now living safely at the VMF (he may think he is dog but enjoys following the flock of volunteers on their duties).

We have had to say goodbye to some of our volunteer staff Tristan Maubec (Head Primate Carer & Bottom Section staff) for a great 2 years of dedication tremendous effort and always being there to lend a helping hand, we wish you all the best in your next adventure and hope you find it as rewarding as the VMF. Thank you Robin Thoren and Yaz for helping out on Top and Bottom section and making sure these areas ran smoothly we wish you all the best in your venture together.

It was also wonderful to have had some family out for a change Rick and Hazel (Josie's parents) for helping with integrations, medications and sorting out a few electrical problems here and there, my cousin Tristan for standing in and multi-tasking on all sections, wish he could have been here longer and thank you all for the extra help.

I would also like to say a special thanks to some of the other staff's family - Twyla's Dad Jack for donating the more powerful two way radio’s which have made a real difference in the communication around the foundation as well as all the other tools and equipment to make our lives easier and Grace for all the medical equipment which came in extremely useful during vasectomy season along with a new projector screen for the education centre.
Thank you to Matt’s family for bringing the VMF Christmas cards out when they came for a visit.

We also had the primate study group return thanks to Brandi Wren it’s always nice to meet new people with a great interest for primates and their behaviour.

Héctor & Ana 2 of the most amazing dedicated vets I have so far come across for arranging the Vet Course at the foundation while performing all the necessary vasectomies, this will hopefully be a yearly course with the next one scheduled for around August in French or Spanish if anyone is interested. Thank you to your team and students it was again a pleasure to have you all here.

Thank you all for making the Vervet Monkey Foundation such a great place to be, after 25 years I still wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

Brandi Wren with students from the Ball State University Primate Study Group

Basil 'Baz' for short - the new VMF non-primate family sheep addition!

Dave's birthday surprise - Matt Akister (Voluntary Integration staff)

Landmark occasions seem to be coming thick and fast for the VMF, with last year being the 20th anniversary of the VMF, geriatric female Whitey hitting 30 years and many more. An occasion that had to be celebrated was on the 9th of September when Dave Du Toit, Co-Founder and Co-Director, turned 50 years old.

25 years ago, Dave found the 1st monkey, Regus, which meant that when Dave turned 50 he had now dedicated half of his life to the protection of the vervets we all know and love. Something special had to be done and I had the rather brilliant idea to organise a mass donate for Dave’s birthday. Thanks to the miracle of facebook, the word was put out and soon over a thousand people had read Dave’s story and more than a few were even prepared to donate. A few months before this was thought up, it had been discussed that the Royal enclosure, one of the oldest enclosures at the foundation and the enclosure that Regus had lived in, was in need of a re-build. It was decided that this was what the money raised would go towards, although at a total cost of 45,000 rand for a re-build, no one had the optimism that we would raise the entire amount. So confident were Josie and I that we agreed to do the ice bucket challenge if we succeeded.

Anyone that’s been to the VMF knows that much of it is run by Dave and more precisely, Dave’s phone, so keeping Dave away from facebook and his emails was not going to be easy. Luckily Dave’s wife (and boss) Josie came up with a cunning plan in order to keep Dave away from anything that might give the game away. When the big day came, 35,000 rand came in within hours and by 4pm we had reached 40,000. Nobody expected so much generosity but looking back at how much of a positive influence the VMF and Dave has had on so many peoples’ lives, it shouldn’t have been surprising. Dave’s birthday dinner was to be at 5pm so Josie and I had 1 hour to convince, persuade, and in my case, bully people into donating the final 5000 rand.

Thanks to some fantastic last minute donations, we did it and Dave, who still had no idea of the scale of the surprise, was presented with a cheque for 45,000 rand! The grand total came to 48,485 rand. This will make a real difference to the lives of the monkeys of the Royal troop and put a smile on Dave’s face.

Thank you Matt for a fantastic idea. Thank you to everyone who was part of it and who donated, it's with your help that things can be achieved. Thank you to Dave's niece Deandra for raising R8000 of the final amount by holding a time warp evening in Jo'burg and also to 10% donators Hairy Armadillo Ltd & Roy & Joy West.

Welcome to all our new volunteers

Welcome back Stephanie and thank you for the baby bottles, blankets and teddys

Thank you to all the volunteers - Richard Thompson (Volunteer Manager)

As always the volunteers here at the VMF have been extremely helpful. The main tasks that the volunteers have been working on recently are as follows:

Eradication – the removal of non-native and toxic plant species from the foundation to make way for more natural plant species that also contribute towards the monkeys' natural diet.

Firebreaks – scoffling around some of the enclosures to create a firebreak and improve the safety of individual enclosures in preparation for the annual fire season.

New enclosure – funds have been raised to build a new enclosure in our bottom section (named H&B) and volunteers helped clear the land in preparation for the enclosure construction which involved chopping down trees near the proposed fence line and removing any waste from the area.

We have had volunteers helping with the integrations of both an adult male 'Rohan' into our Koko troop and an orphan female 'Bianca' and we are proud to be able to say that Rohan and Bianca have both been successfully integrated into the Koko and Engeltjie troops. Without the help of the volunteers this may not have been possible so a big thank you to all of those volunteers that helped with the integration process, monitoring the interactions and following the monkeys around as they stayed outside in the troop.

We have been concerned about the health and well-being of some of our older monkeys in the Gismo troop during this winter season and so voluntary staff and volunteers have been helping in the construction of a new framework that provides several new sleeping perches. The added benefit to this will hopefully be the encouragement of 'Friend' (an old female monkey) to fully integrate and immerse herself in the troop by sleeping outside with the troop.

The volunteers have been very instrumental in keeping things running smoothly during the August vasectomy season by taking up more responsibility in the day-to-day management of the vervet monkeys at the foundation. Additionally during this time we had a bit of a scare when a fire was started in the nearby area and it spread towards the foundation. We were very fortunate to have a good team of volunteers spotting and monitoring nearby fires, and in this instance, help us put the fire out in a safe and timely manner to prevent it entering the foundation.

To all of the volunteers the VMF and voluntary staff would like to say a big THANK YOU for all of your help!!

A big thank you to Richard for helping the VMF run smoothly and for looking after the volunteers ensuring they have a great volunteering experience.

Volunteers at work collecting forage and preparing food - thank you all

Thank you to all who donated the spraypacks and all who helped fight this fire

Primate Theory & Practical Course - Twyla Dresler (VMF Vet nurse)

On 14th August 2014 to 2nd September 2014 Héctor Sanz Cabañes and Ana Navarro Serra returned from Spain to perform the vasectomies on our non-releasable males again this year. This time however, they organized a Vet course and 7 other people joined them. In total there were 4 experience vets, 2 vet students, 1 human dentist, 1 human psychologist and 1 biologist.

During their two and a half weeks of being at the foundation the 4 vets; Héctor Sanz Cabañes, Ana Navarro Serra, Fernando García and Vicente Benavent have been monitoring the vasectomies, proceeding with the vasectomies as well as teaching the 2 vet students; Julie Capdevielle Buesa and Natàlia Carbonell Vallès how to monitor, perform the surgeries and set up for the procedures. It was also an honour to have Antonio Torres as the human dentist join in and partake in the surgeries. He helped check all the vasectomies monkey's teeth under surgery as well as working on Larry, Pervie and Angela's teeth. Some had extractions, cavities filled and cleaning. At the same time as the vasectomies were taking place Ainhoa Alares the biologist and Begoña Fernandez Blanco the human psychologist have been observing monkey behaviour and relating it to human behaviour.

We are all very happy for the skills they brought to the foundation as well as all the donations they brought for the vasectomies from Vetplan. A huge thank you to Antonio Torres for donating an Autoclave to our surgery room and everyone else who helped bring it along in their bags. It'll make our surgeries more sterile now.

I had an honour to work with all of them in surgery and they all made each procedure run smoothly. We are pleased for their help during the busy vasectomy period and are excited for them to come back next year to run another course, Spanish time of course ;-)

A special thank you to Spanish Veterinarians Héctor & Ana for organising the course, veterinarian Vincente for collaborating and all the students who attended. Thank you to VMF Vet nurse Twyla Dresler for assisting with the initial procedures and set up, thank you to Lisa Kubotera (VMF sickbay staff) & Richard Thompson (Volunteer Manager) for looking after all the monkeys in sickbay and Matthew Akister (VMF Integration staff) for trapping the monkeys for their vasectomies and all the volunteers who helped. The team put on an amazing spread of food and a Spanish party on their last evening, the staff and volunteers thought Christmas had come early!

Watch this space for next year's course.....

The monkeys not only had vasectomies, they had their teeth checked also

Spanish Veterinarian Vincente teaching the vet students

Thank you Sue Ettmayr for publishing an aritcle about the Primate course

Thank you everyone involved in vasectomy season and the primate course

Would you like to work at the VMF longer term?

Voluntary staff opportunities

The following exciting & rewarding opportunites are available at the Vervet Monkey Foundation, South Africa:

- Section Primate Carers (to start asap 2014)

- Integration staff (start end 2014 / beg 2015)

For the above positions, we are able to provide basic cabin accommodation, laundry and vegan meals. Flights and travel excluded. Please note the above positions are for a minimum commitment of 2 years or more. Depending on length of stay, we can offer a small stipend after 1 year.

Rohan is an adult male that has lived on the side of Koko enclosure for a while and in April 2014 his time finally came to start integration into the troop. Integration started slowly as not many of the troop monkeys wanted to enter the introduction cage, so Rohan spent the first few weeks with only the juveniles for company. Rohan would occasionally interact with them, usually by trying to touch their heads or occasionally playing. After a few brief visits from the adult females in the troop, they started to come in the cage more frequently and spent time with Rohan. Progress was still slow as Rohan, not wanting to get into trouble, would not interact much with the females, only briefly grooming adult female Brownie during the whole cage integration process. He was more interested in the juvenile males that would come in and made friends with 3 year old TJ who he would often play with and groom. None of the females would show any aggression towards him when in the cage and the adult males with the exception of Sebastian would often sit next to his cage and they would interact through the fence, with Rohan frequently grooming Tilt.

In July 2014 he was let out into the enclosure for the first time, and although there had not been too much interaction between him and the troop they all accepted him from the start, with very little aggression from any of the adult males and Rohan never looked back. He would only come back to his cage at feeding times looking for food but since there was no food in his cage he quickly stopped coming back. As soon as Rohan went out he found the tallest tree to sit in and would spend all day there watching, occasionally walking the length of the enclosure to find a new tree to sit in. He spent quite a bit of time either alone or with adult males Zardo and CJ around. From day 1, when it was time for mainfeed Rohan would be out very quickly with the high ranked monkeys around and eat with them, sometimes telling off the younger monkeys if they tried to take food from near him, often with alpha female Bee or high ranking males Sebastian or Tilt watching him.

Thank you Laura, Tash, Karin, Jess and all who helped with Rohan's integration. More info on integrations and Koko Troop can be read if you adopt Koko Troop.

Rohan telling the other monkeys to stay away from his food in Koko Troop

Bianca came into the VMF at 9 months old after being kept illegally as a pet in Tzaneen. She had most likely spent the vast majority of her life in human hands and was highly humanised, so getting her into the troop as soon as possible was a must. She quickly learnt to drink out of a bottle and soon was moved to an introduction cage on the Engeltjie troop.

She was the 10th orphan to be integrated into the Engeltjie in the last 18 months so the very maternal females took an early interest in their new infant. Jessie and Emma, two of the most maternal females at the sanctuary, unsurprisingly, were very keen to meet Bianca, but unfortunately Bianca was not too happy to meet them. Emma was the first to enter the cage and after a while of being scared, Bianca ran up to Emma, slapped her, and ran away. Luckily Emma was very patient and allowed this cheeky little baby to get away with the erratic behaviour.

Early encounters were similar and it took Bianca a few days to begin to interact, but once she did she learnt quickly and soon learnt grooming, play and many other behaviours. She spent most nights sleeping in the introduction cage with her favourite monkey, geriatric female Brownie, who seemed to like Bianca very much, as well as the extra body heat. Orphans Braveheart and Carolyn quickly took a shine to Bianca and would spend hours playing and chasing her.

Soon the big day came when Bianca took her first step into Engeltjie enclosure, and that is meant literally, as for the first day Bianca did not go more than a foot away from the introduction cage. She had probably spent her entire life in small spaces and so adapting to this relatively huge enclosure was going to be difficult. Over the next few weeks spent more and more time out in the enclosure until almost 2 months after she first stepped out, she stopped coming back to her introduction cage and she is now living full time in Engeltjie troop! She still gets on well with Jessie and Emma, as well as adult females Claire and Brownie, she is still very playful with orphan Braveheart and she now enjoys spending a lot of her time playing with adult males Clark, Joey and Harry.

Sophie integration

Sophie is a two year old female that was originally kept outside in very poor conditions with no food or water, and then kept by two people for another few months. This was not an ideal start to life and she came into the VMF underweight and very humanised. After a short period in sickbay, Sophie moved into an introduction cage on the side of Engeltjie troop. It was soon clear that even though she had been in human hands for so long, Sophie did know some monkey behaviour. She was often seen grooming adult male Rufus and playing with the juveniles her age.

Once some of Engeltjie troop were let in it became apparent that Sophie was a grooming machine. She has groomed almost every female in Engeltjie troop, Jessie, Claire and Arora being particular favourites. She is also getting on very well with the orphans integrated into the troop with Jommy and Braveheart playing with her for many hours of the day.
Sophie’s integration is going extremely well and she will hopefully be released into the enclosure in the near future.

Thank you Matt, Laura, Lisa and the rest of the staff and volunteers who have helped make Bianca's integration a success.

Bianca having a swinging time

Bianca playing with Engeltjie troop members

Ex-pet Bianca in Engeltjie troop, ex-pet Sophie has started her integrations

Jana grooming Sophie

Sophie grooming Bisou from Engeltjie troop

Petitions to sign & share - thank you

Please click on the primate petitions below and sign and share far and wide.

Jay-Bee came to us in July; this wild baby vervet monkey had a pellet lodged in his left eye, which was swollen and infected, and the infection spread to his right eye leaving him completely blind. Having his sight taken away, it was difficult for him to keep up with his troop and was eventually left behind. As soon as he arrived, he was taken to the vets where he had his eye surgically removed.

He was very skinny and dehydrated when he reached the foundation. The first couple of days, he was monitored closely by Josie and Dave, then moved down to Sickbay when he was more stable. We had to hand-feed him, about every 2 hours, in the beginning because it was difficult for him to find his plate. We also took him to visit Frenchie, Shasta, and Shanti-Ray’s introduction cage everyday to meet and interact with his new family since he would not survive in the wild (Jay-Bee was inside a small cage, which was placed inside the introduction cage allowing everyone to interact safely). Frenchie became protective of Jay-Bee very quickly; when it was time for him to go back to Sickbay, Frenchie aggressed, clearly telling us she did not want us to take her new baby away. After a couple weeks of gradual integration, Jay-Bee was released into the introduction cage with his new family.

Jay-Bee was not afraid to come out of the cage and started exploring his new home. Frenchie kept following him as if to make sure he did not get hurt, and groomed him a lot. Shasta and Shanti-Ray accepted him just as well.

Now Shanti-Ray has a new playmate and the two adult females have their hands full looking after two blind but adorable monkeys. Both monkeys have adapted extremely well to their new environment and climb, play and groom well.

Thank you to all who looked after him along with volunteers Simone Kunisch & Stephanie Huys for naming Jay-Bee and for paying for his operation to have his eye removed.The VMF are doing leaflet drops in the area and all cases have been reported to the SPCA. If you see someone shooting at monkeys or other animals, please call the SPCA or the VMF immediately.

X-rays of Jay-Bee, a pellet from an air rifle was lodged in his eye

The pellet was removed from Jay-Bee's eye, he now has a caring monkey family

Blinded victims of pellet guns now living happily with Frenchie & Shasta

VMF Events overseas - dates for your calendar

Upcoming England & Ireland Events

Add these dates to your diary for some exciting events in UK. Please e-mail josie@vervet.za.org if you are able to help on any of the VMF stands this year. Do go along to these festivals, they are a lot of fun, suitable for the whole family.

A great place for VMF volunteers and friends to get together for a great night out whilst raising funds for the monkeys at the same time.

Please contact josie@vervet.za.org if you would like to buy a ticket or if you think you can help sell some. Everyone is welcome, the more tickets sold, the more funds raised. Why not make a weekend of it in Ireland? Dave (VMF Co-Founder / Director) & Josie (VMF Co-Director / Rehabilitator) will be attending.

Thank you to Sandy Currie for organising the Vancouver Vegfest this year, speaking at various meet up groups and displaying posters and leaflets. Thank you also to Clare Fish for helping at the Vegfest Vancouver stand this year. Clare volunteered at the VMF after attending the Vegfest last year.

Thank you volunteer Clare Fish for helping on the Vegfest, Vancouver stand

Thank you Sandy Currie for organising the Vegfest Vancouver stand

Short Updates - Josie Du Toit (Co-Director / Rehabilitator)

New Holt & Barrington enclosure - Thanks to the donation from Andrew Holt & family & Patrick Barrington last year, we were able to purchase all the necessary material for the H&B enclosure. Andrew and Patrick dug and planted the corner post before they left and as time permitted Innocent, Gift , John and Sammy erected the rest of the poles. Guidelines were put in to aid in seeing which trees and bush had to be removed which was carried out with the help of our very dedicated volunteers whom we are really grateful for. It was hot, tiring work cutting and dragging trees from the new enclosure area. The corner posts have now been cemented and stabilised, the initial diamond mesh fence has been put in place and it’s starting to take shape, the tedious job of tying on the bobbins and threading the electrical fence will be the next hard step.......

Princess arrived on 20th August 2014. She is an adult female who had been kept illegally as a pet in a cage in the garden. We confiscated her with the assistance of the SPCA and veterinarian Héctor. On arrival there was no food or water in her cage and we saw she is very humanised. Princess spent a period of time in quarantine, had all her health checks and is now living in an introduction cage at Dino & Daniel C where she will spend some time getting used to monkeys as she is very nervous of them. Princess was given her name by local staff John who has been looking after her in quarantine, it suits her as she has her food on a silver metal plate as she plays and chews plastic ones!

Geriatric female Cane from GIsmo Troop passed away this month, we believe her to be over the age of 20 years. She was a foster mum to many orphans and will be greatly missed in the GIsmo Troop. We hope she is enjoying her life in the Vervet Forest in the sky with Tink.

Adounsie from Goliath Troop also passed away, he was an ex-pet thought to have been abused in his younger years. When he came to the VMF he was loved and cared for right up until the end and had a good life in Goliath troop for the best part of 7 years, he passed away at the age of 10 years after a long period of sickness and was unresponsive to any medical treatments.

Rest in Peace Cane, pictured here with orphan Gizmo in Gismo Troop

Progress for the new H&B enclosure

Dave offers Princess some water whilst we await the SPCA

With the assistance of veterinarian Héctor, Josie puts Princess in a transport cage

Left: old cage. Right: Princess moved to a quarantine cage before moving to D&D

VMF Troop Adoptions now available

Instead of adopting just one monkey, you can now adopt a whole troop at the VMF, troops to adopt are as follows and all include orphan groups:

Updates and photos will be sent on the troop every 6 months including any new integrations of monkeys into the group, how the orphans are progressing and the troop in general.

The cost per year for one of these adoptions is R800 (approx $75, £45, 55 Euros at the current exchange rate) plus postage and packing dependant on country.

You will receive in an adoption folder:

An adoption certificate (we can put in someone elses name if ou would like to give it as a gift)

A fridge magnet

3 A4 colour photo collages of troop members and orphans

A VMF poster

A postcard

History 6-10 page document of the history of the troop

In 6 months time you will receive photo updates and story updates by e-mail

Option of continuing n the adoption for another year

If you are interested in adopting a troop of monkeys, please e-mail josie@vervet.za.org All the funding received from these adoptions goes directly towards helping more monkeys and maintaining their enclosures and food.

Ethical organisations supporting the VMF

Buddha Beauty

Buddha Beauty are supporting the VMF, they are offering 10% off for anyone ordering using the link below and typing in the VMF code VM1010. They are also giving a further 10% to the VMF or you can choose to donate the whole 20% to help the monkeys. All their range is cruelty free, palm oil free, vegan, natural, organic and smells amazing. You can buy mango body butter, facial scrubs, face masks, foot creams, massage soy wax candles and more, they also make great ethical gifts for others.

Living naturally in UK make soap nuts and are offering a 10% off if you enter the discount code VMF0614. They will also give an additional 10% to the VMF. Soap nuts are the most natural, organic laundry detergent soap and cleaner available on the planet. Also suitable for allergy sufferers and 100% vegan.